Citizens’ Views on Urban Revitalization

Abstract

Renaissance cities have been widely discussed in the literature on urban development. However, despite scholarly interest in this subject, there has been little systematic research on how citizens feel about so-called “hot” cities and the factors that go into citizen conclusions that a city is doing well. In this paper, we use data from a survey of residents of Providence, Rhode Island and review the political and economic history of the area to assess what affects public opinion about city success, quality of life, and downtown improvement. Our analysis demonstrates that on dimensions such as moving in the right direction, satisfaction with specific services such as police protection is important to public assessments. In other areas, though, such as quality of life, factors such as race relations, street repairs, and political leadership matter more. We conclude with suggestions about what cities that wish to be seen as having “turned the corner” must do in order to bring citizens around to that viewpoint.

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